Landmarks of Life

"Jungle River" by Drew John Tankersley

Happy sez- The other day I had to run some errands which took me by an old residence of mine where I spent many happy years and I got to thinking about the landmarks in the neighborhood that showed me where I was, where my old place was and also gave me my bearings so I could navigate where I wanted.
Everything was pretty much the same, the 7-11 was still on the corner ( and still getting robbed regularly, I presume), the shopping center was still across the street from the 7-11 and the library was still one block over and two blocks down, even the big pine trees growing in front was still marking the spot.  Stepping to a little longer time scales the roads were all in the same places and the big mountain a mile or so to the east was still there and probably will be for several million years.  I wondered what it would be like if there were no landmarks, or should say no familiar landmarks, just a big empty flat dry lake or barren plain, how would I find my old home?

I love looking at maps, especially old maps and seeing all the different places there are in the world and dreaming of perhaps going there someday.  When you look at a map your looking at a list of landmarks arranged by their location on this world, and so it is that landmarks make the map, it is landmarks that mark your way and landmarks that tell you where your at.  The same thing could be said with our lives, do we not use and need landmarks in our lives, so we know where we are and how we are doing with different aspects of our lives: grades to give us a indication of where we are in relation to our education, our debt and bank balance to tell us how we're doing financially and so on, so we use landmarks all the time in our daily lives. The landmarks that mark our daily lives create the map of our day to day lives.  Do we not also need and use ( even if subconsciously) landmarks not just in our day to day lives, but  in a deeper sense, the sense of morality and well being,  the sense of the spirit and of the soul?  This map of the deeper part of our existence taken together with the landmarks and maps of our day to day lives and our surroundings gives us an idea of were we are at in our lives at a particular time, and it is as accurate as the landmarks that make it. .

The world we live on is constantly changing, rivers dry up or change their course, the mountains appear and disappear, even the continents change their shape and location and so it can be said with our lives, constantly changing in most aspects with constantly changing landmarks.  As the landmarks change so does the map of our lives adjusting to it's new landmarks which are the maps reference points giving the map it's frame of reference.  Even though the landmarks in our surroundings and our day to day lives may completely vanish, the landmarks that mark the realms of the spirit and soul are of a more permanent nature.  God endures and our soul is the essence of that which is us, given to us by our God.  You do not have to be a religious person or even believe in religion to believe in that -  you just have to believe in your own soul, and if your lucky the ingot of two souls melted together.  Those are pretty solid landmarks - yourself and God.  All those whether human or animal, even if they are gone, that are or have had faith in us, loved us or in some way gave us some point of wisdom or rock of stability in an unstable time are not these solid landmarks?  What of those ancestors that have gone before us or those that lived in centuries past that led to us and strove to leave us in a better shape by shaping the past that shaped our future?  There are some landmarks that are not just timeless but are outside of time.
            
The old saying that you can't go home again is true in many ways on many levels.  If  your old home is still there and your familiar landmarks are all still there you may by able to drive right to it, and it may look the same, with perhaps a different bush or tree or perhaps a different color on the shutters; both differences  because the time is different, a thousand years farther down the time scale and the landmark that is you old home probably won't exist.  On a different level the landmarks that you knew of your old home such as the neighbor next door, the postman of twenty years that knew everyone or the friendly clerk at the 7-11 that always said hi and meant it even though you knew her feet must be killing her, may have gone or changed, not only because the time is different but because the landmarks that make their lives and their lives maps has changed as well. The last but perhaps most important of all is the fact that you are gone and changed is not just your location and time but the way you live your day to day  life because of those changes, changing the landmarks in your life and changing your life's map as well.  Even though most of the landmarks that make the map of our life may and will change throughout our life we must always try to look for the solid, unchangeable landmarks that will give us a map that will allow us to navigate life's journey with grace and goodness.

Leave me your thoughts, what kind of landmarks do you use, can you read your lives map very well?  That's something  I have always had trouble with and would appreciate any suggestions.  Thanks - Happy

Here are some links to some interesting sites:.

National Geographic
David Rumsey Collection 
Sky Vector 
Map of the World